Verizon and NEC Go Beyond 100G in Successful Field Trial

Verizon and NEC Corporation of America have jointly completed another industry first with a field trial transmitting high bit-rate technologies, including 100G, 450G and 1T (1 terabit or 1000G), coexisting on the same fiber.

The results of the trial, which was performed last year on 3,560 kilometers (2,212 miles) of field fiber of Verizon's network in the Dallas area, were outlined in a post-deadline paper that was presented at the recent OFC/NFOEC Conference and Expo.

"As we look to a future when data rates go beyond 100G, it's important to begin examining how these technologies perform," said Glenn Wellbrock, director of optical transport network architecture and design at Verizon, and an author of the paper. "This trial gives us a good first step toward analyzing the capabilities of future technologies."

The trial measured the quality of the signal for all channels as well as the intensity of the optical signal. The final determination resulted in the conclusion that these "superchannels" were able to carry higher capacities while improving spectral efficiency without sacrificing distance.

"NEC is committed to the introduction of ultra-high-speed optical DWDM systems and has an extensive history in achieving the most advanced research and development results in the optical networking area globally," said Jim Nakajima, senior vice president at NEC. "This joint effort with Verizon demonstrates our capability to introduce novel concepts, confirm their performance, and validate our long-term strategy to service the carrier marketplace with viable high-bandwidth solutions for optical networks."

The two companies specifically focused on transmission performance over a significant fiber distance since previous experiments of this type have only been performed in a lab environment.

Verizon has led the industry in 100G technology since 2007, when the company successfully completed the industry's first field trial of 100G optical traffic on a live system. The company continued to mark significant achievements through November 2010 when it deployed a 100G ultra-long-haul optical transmission system on the same European network route, marking the first commercial deployment of such a system.

About VerizonVerizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving 94.1 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 194,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

About NECNEC Corporation of America, headquartered in Irving, Texas, is a leading provider of innovative business solutions drawn from one of the industry's broadest portfolio of IT and network technologies, expertise and professional services for service carriers, Fortune 1000 and SMB businesses across multiple vertical industries, including Healthcare, Government, Education, Retail and Hospitality. NEC Corporation of America's solution expertise and product offerings span unified communications, wireless, voice and data, managed services, server and storage infrastructure, optical network systems, microwave radio communications and biometric security. NEC Corporation of America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, a global technology leader with operations in 30 countries and more than $38 billion in revenues. For more information, please visit www.necam.com.